Artist Peregrine Church will bring his water-activated art to the Eskenazi Museum of Art this August. They are known as Rainworks, an initiative of “rain-activated artwork, designed to make a rainy day better.”
To celebrate the museum’s 75th year, this presentation is a way for the museum to give back to the community with these rain-based installations. From August 16-26, Church will be visiting IU, during which time he will be installing a large Rainwork in front of the museum.
According to his YouTube video, where Church first demonstrated his Rainworks, he describes the project as “pieces of street art that only appear when they’re wet, and they’re messages or images designed to make people’s rainy day a little bit better.”
Hailing from Seattle, known as the Rainy City, Church was inspired by a viral video showing a variety of liquids like chocolate syrup or red wine rolling off the surfacea of objects, due to a hydrophobic coating that resists water.
Taking this same technique, Church uses a non-toxic, biodegradable spray, called Invisible Spray, to stencil these artworks onto sidewalks and other outdoor surfaces. In his YouTube video, Church said “(Rainworks) is the ideal Seattle art.”
The video produced by Waka Waka Studios has since gone viral via Facebook, garnering more than 4 million views, which is how Abe Morris, manager of public relations and marketing for the Eskenazi Museum of Art, first saw Church’s work.
A kickstarter campaign of $50,000 helped give the initiative for Church and his business partners to start creating Rainworks of their own.
The museum plans to officially unveil the event Aug. 18.
The event is open to the public. Church will lead a workshop demonstrating how to create Rainworks to the community Aug. 25. This event is also free and open to the public but space is limited.
“It’s going to rain no matter what, so why not do something cool with it?” Church said.
